Abominable Snowman

Land of the Lost
Season 3, Episode 9

Air date	November 6, 1976
Written by	Sam Roeca
Directed by	Joe Scanlan
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Abominable Snowman was the Ninth Episode of the Third Season of the Land of the Lost.

Summary[]

Holly adopts a unicorn that actually belongs to a hairy wild man across the crevasse.

Plot[]

Jack and Will Marshall are out gathering fruit when they encounter a creature resembling a miniature brown horse with a spiral horn, and they decide to bring it back to the Temple for Holly to keep as a pet. Their fruit-gathering mission is aborted, as Grumpy charges, destroying their fruit cart in the process.

Back at the Temple, Holly is preparing a layer cake with chocolate icing as Cha-ka looks on. Will and Jack return with Holly's gift and the four of them begin celebrating this occasion as Holly's unofficial birthday.

As Holly and Cha-ka bring Corny (the name she gave to her new pet, from the word "unicorn") to the swamp to give him some water and fill up the water jugs and gather berries, they are spotted by Enik, who goes to confront Jack. The unicorn is actually of a species that Enik calls "toki" and is the prey of a dangerous, carnivorous predator known as The Tappa. Warning that the Tappa will come to reclaim his prey, Enik directs Jack to have Holly release it. Jack remains unimpressed, despite Enik's dire warnings that The Tappa will visit destruction on them all to recover its toki.

Holly and Cha-ka briefly leave Corny to gather berries when they are interrupted by Corny's distressed cry. They discover Corny is missing. They start to survey the area for clues as to Corny's disappearance, but are interrupted by a brief appearance of Lulu. Enik then arrives and attempts to persuade Holly to leave Corny to the Tappa, but she remains determined that she will keep her pet.

Enik then returns to Jack and Will, advising them that Holly and Cha-ka have gone to recover her pet. Concerned for their safety in pursuing such an apparently dangerous and powerful creature, Jack and Will quickly go after them.

Holly and Cha-ka track the Tappa to a much higher and colder elevation. Despite her acrophobia, they manage to cross a deep ravine, using a tree trunk as a bridge. They find Corny almost immediately, but have been discovered by the Tappa. Holly and Cha-ka flee to a cave, but Holly soon realizes that the cave is Tappa's lair.

Jack and Will have reached the ravine but have no way to cross it, as the tree trunk used by Holly and Cha-ka has fallen in. Jack uses a rope and grappling hook to cross the ravine as Will stays behind, using a hatchet to cut down a tree to provide a bridge.

When Tappa returns to his lair, Holly is able to placate him with cake that Cha-ka brought with him. She then builds a fire to warm herself. Using a torch, Holly is able to distract the pyrophobic Tappa long enough for her and Cha-ka to escape.

Possibly due to the heat given off by Holly's fire, or perhaps due to the Tappa's violent rage as he realizes Holly and Cha-ka have escaped, the cave entrance is then buried by an avalanche. This only serves to briefly delay the Tappa, however, he uses a gigantic icicle to smash through the chunks of ice blocking his cave. As Holly and Cha-ka flee with Corny, they encounter Jack and the three of them flee, as the Tappa follows close behind. When they arrive at the ravine, Will has not finished cutting down the tree to allow them cross. To distract the Tappa, Holly hurls the remainder of Cha-ka's cake toward him. Will finally topples the tree, allowing Jack, Holly, Cha-ka and Corny to cross the gorge.

Instead of pursuing, the Tappa then knocks the tree trunk bridge into the ravine, an act which the Marshalls interpret as a warning to stay out of the Tappa's territory, an arrangement that the Marshalls are happy to comply with.

Message[]

Love overcomes all obstacles.

Cast[]

Dinosaurs[]

Quotes[]

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Trivia[]

Although the Marshalls succeed in rescuing Corny from the Abominable Snowman, Corny is never seen or referred to again. Corny's fate remains unknown.
It is unknown how Holly acquired the ingredients to make her layer cake. It seems implausible at best that she could have found and refined all the necessary ingredients using indigenous plants and animals in The Land of the Lost. The most likely explanation is that she acquired a cake mix, icing and all the other necessary items from one of the Pylons. Just as the Pakuni did in The Pylon Express.
Enik paraphrases William Shakespeare (1564-1616), whom he should have no knowledge of, as he is not from earth. When Corny is reclaimed by Tappa, he offers to give Holly "a toad. It has a precious jewel in its forehead." This seems to be a reference to Shakespeare's "As You Like It," Act II, scene i. "Sweet are the uses of adversity, / Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, / Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; . , ,"
When Enik offers her a toad (a creature that has not been seen in the Land of the Lost), Holly rejects the offer, claiming that she heard toads give a person warts and she'd rather not find out. This is a popular myth. But since warts are caused by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which is not carried by frogs or toads, frogs and toads cannot give a person warts.